Lawyer and academic, Father Frank Brennan, speaks in Goulburn about Voice referendum

Father Frank Brennan AO, also a Jesuit priest and author, recounted on Friday his recent conversation with an Aboriginal woman in Darwin. She explained that many of her people didn't understand the Voice referendum, due to be put to voters later this year.

"But if it's a no, they'll understand that they've been rejected again by the Australian people," she told Father Brennan.

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Regional online poll on voice shows 'no' vote rising

Father Frank Brennan to speak at Sts Peter and Paul's function in Goulburn

At that point, she started to weep.

"That's as good a statement as any and it's why I feel deeply about the abuse of political process. It is playing roulette with people's souls," he said.

Father Brennan was guest speaker at Sts Peter and Paul's Cathedral's annual parish dinner at the Goulburn Workers Club on Friday.

The speech was billed for the 'yes campaign' in the federal government's First Nations Voice to Parliament later this year. But Father Brennan was scathing of the parliamentary process to date, which he argued had left the nation deeply divided and no closer to a 'yes' vote.

"This, from day one, has been executed by both sides as something that will divide the political parties and therefore the nation," he told The Post.

Father Brennan believed a parliamentary process established in April came too late. By this time, the referendum's wording had been introduced to parliament and the Liberal and National parties had opposed it.

He told the gathering he'd taken up Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's invitation for "Australians of goodwill" to engage in the conversation about the final wording. But when he appeared before the parliamentary committee, he said he was treated as though he was advocating a 'no vote.' Father Brennan argued the process was not aimed at maximising the chances of a yes vote.

"I've spent 30 years appearing before parliamentary committees and I've never been treated as badly. It was appalling," he said.

Father Brennan agreed with Liberal senator, Andrew Bragg, that the process was "a joke."

He said the final wording put in a bill to parliament had not changed from the original. Mr Albanese had "not wanted to break faith" with his 2019 Aboriginal advisory panel and the Opposition would not consider any amendments "lest it made a defeat of the proposal less likely."

"Be under no illusion, the cynical party politics in all of this is just atrocious. I'm prepared to call it out and say elected leaders on both sides have been playing roulette with people's souls," he said.

Father Brennan had pushed an amendment that the Voice would report to parliament and cabinet, not the parliament and executive government.

He has penned his arguments in a book, An Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Considering a Constitutional Bridge.

He says "the fudging of arguments" is making the choice more difficult. Some would vote no, regardless of Indigenous leaders' compelling arguments; others would vote yes, despite the "imperfections." Among the undecided, Father Brennan said they didn't want "slick slogans or adverse judgments on their character" but reliable information and respect. He argued it was this latter group that would decide the referendum.

An Australian Community Media poll of 10,131 people found that the overall 'no' vote was 55 per cent against 38 per cent for 'yes' and seven per cent undecided.

But in the regions, the 'no' vote was 57 per cent and the 'yes' vote was 35 per cent, with eight per cent undecided.

Asked about this result, Father Brennan said he'd always maintained that one had to "get out of Sydney and Melbourne" to gauge national sentiment.

"For some in the regions (the indecision) is about not having enough information," he said.

"For others, it is a case of 'are we just hearing from urban elites once again on what is the solution to what is the solution to rural and regional problems.' That is a standard thing in Australian politics, whether or not it's about Aboriginal people."

In response to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's argument that enshrining a First Nations voice to parliament in the constitution would create "inequity," Father Brennan said Mr Abbott had been consistent in his views since 2015.

"But with respect to him, it overlooks the fact that we're dealing with a couple centuries of radical dispossession...The intergenerational trauma is such that there's a need for that to be fully recognised in the constitution."

But he believed the referendum's outcome was "lineball." Father Brennan said many younger people felt they hadn't been engaged in the process and would vote yes but "influential people" like Aboriginal leader, Michael Mansell in Tasmania could sway the no vote in that state.

He plans to vote 'yes,' despite the question's "imperfections."

"Let's hope the country can still get to yes despite the failings of process and precision. By now we should have been much closer to yes than no," he said.

"May we all remain committed to respectful dialogue on these last days of the referendum which risk being as dreadful, dreary and divisive as was much of our parliament's carry-on...Here's hoping we can get the country to yes, despite the failings of our politicians."

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